Neil Shearing’s Internet Marketing Strategies

According to Tradedoubler, Google’s policy with regards to bidding on trademarked terms using their Adwords program is changing.

Tradedoubler sent an email out to affiliates saying that Google’s policy may have changed, but it’s the *merchant’s* policy you need to be aware of when bidding on keywords as an affiliate for a Tradedoubler merchant.

From the Tradedoubler email…
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I am sure it hasn’t escaped your notice that on May 5th Google will no longer prevent you or anyone else using AdWords to place adverts on Google for trademarked terms.

So, Google will no longer prevent unauthorized ads from showing when users search for trademarked terms. Full info on this is available here.

Keyword policies and terms and conditions set by TradeDoubler’s merchants are unchanged by Google’s trademark policy revision. You can check and review these at any time by logging in to your account on the TradeDoubler site.

Our merchant’s policies are changed from time to time by TradeDoubler and we will notify you of any changes by email and publish the full policy on the info page for each advertiser. If you are unsure of how to interpret a keyword policy, please don’t hesitate to contact us as we’d be happy to talk you through them.

TradeDoubler has technology to monitor search activity on behalf of our merchants. This helps us to find ways to supplement their programmes with affiliate activity on search engines, and ensure that we have visibility of unauthorised activity.

In accordance with the Publisher Agreement, if your activity goes against a merchant’s terms and conditions, you may be removed from the programme or network and forfeit commissions.
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Summary:

Tradedouber says, “we’re in charge, not Google”!

I should’ve guessed that the Instant Resale Templates launch would be impressive, but, from a marketer’s perspective, I’m almost lost for words.

It appears that Joel did some early split-testing of different price points and possibly sales letter elements too. He reported early sales converted at 3%, which is a good, but not amazing conversion rate. After making several tweaks, which I think included dropping the price to $97 from $197 and perhaps picking a “winning” headline, the conversion rocketed to 9%.

From my first mention of the product to my list, I can confirm that traffic was converting at just short of 10%, which is phenomenal.

If you’re looking for a sales letter and product offer to add to your “marketing swipe file”, I would suggest you visit Instant Resale Templates and take notes before it disappears.

In my opinion, Twitter is rubbish for Internet marketers.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I can see how Twitter is great for groups such as “friends and family” and “work colleagues” who just want to keep each other informed of what they’re doing.

BUT, for marketers, this constant information is just a distracting noise, right?

Let me give you an example… Michael Campbell’s Twitter page … his “tweets” as they’re called.

What is the point of me viewing that page? I see that Michael is having conversations with people and at the same time other people can leave comments such as the guy who wrote, “Wonderful quote from an old Earl Nightingale audio. “The secret to happiness is freedom. The secret to freedom is courage.” ~ Thucydides”.

Huh? What’s the point of that?

Twitter is like watching a stream of comments with very little direction or moderation. There’s no “blog post” to direct the conversation around a topic. There’s no forum thread to direct the conversation around a topic. I’m guessing there’s very little moderation of comments because nothing can be “off topic”. The signal to noise ratio is very poor.

If I want Michael’s tips, which I do because Michael always provides wonderful information, I’ll read his newsletter, or visit his website where the real information is.

But I don’t get why I should visit his Twitter page.

I’ll give you another example. I just created a Twitter account to see if I was missing the point. When I started my account I found that some people were already “following” me, and my page filled up with comments such as, “Relaxing by the lake, smoking a nice cigar. Finished my prezo” and “Putting boat cover on before storm hits; looks like a day of TV and poker”.

What the heck?

It’s NOISE.

It doesn’t help me market to people.

It’s for the Web2.0 generation to tell each other when they’ve put the kettle on to make a cup of tea.

It’s just inane “bird chat” for people with ADD, right?

What do you think? Is there time in your daily schedule to make, read and reply to comments on Twitter… or are you too busy already? Will it help your marketing efforts, or hinder them by taking away time from more productive projects?